Burned-in equipment are known. Typically, such equipment includes an oven chamber in which a number of to-be-tested electronic components are contained and heated to a constant high temperature, to mimic a worst condition scenario, so that the defective components would fail in a much shorter time than otherwise required. Such equipment oftentimes include a low or ambient temperature section that contains the necessary driving circuit for generating signals to operate the components while the same are being heated in the high temperature chamber. To provide connection between the to-be-tested components and driving circuit, the components and the driving circuit are ordinarily placed onto respective printed circuit (PC) boards (cards) and are connected by means of connectors at the junction of the two chambers.
Examples of this type of testing equipment are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,145,620 and 4,468,616. In the '620 Patent, a burned-in chamber which includes an oven and a bay module is disclosed. The bay module has a number of signal distribution cards which are connected to corresponding socket cards that bear the to-be-tested components. At the back panel of the bay module, and mated to each of the signal distribution cards, is a driver card that contains the electronics for operating the components on the corresponding socket cards. In addition to the driver cards, a pattern generator card is also used. Further required are a great number of wires which interconnect between the signal distribution cards, for providing the signals from the pattern generation card to the different socket cards. Thus, a large number of wires, in addition to the already numerous leads on the signal distribution cards, are needed for the '620 device.
Needless to say, the many wires present the problem of unreliability, as one of the wires may inadvertently break. Moreover, the socket cards are connected to the signal distribution cards by means of connectors, which are located in the oven of the burned-in chamber and thus are exposed to a high temperature environment. And if exposed to the high temperature environment for an extended period of time, metal degradation, more specifically metal fatigue for the beryllium contacts in the connectors, occurs. Consequently, no longer would there be accurate interfacing between the components in the oven and the driver circuits on the driver cards. Furthermore, inasmuch as the driver cards are located outside of the burned-in chamber and are thus unprotected, mishaps affecting the integrity of the driver cards become inevitable.
The equipment disclosed in the '616 Patent is divided into a high temperature section, a low temperature section and a connecting unit section. In the high temperature section are contained the PC cards bearing the to-be-tested components. In the low temperature section are the PC cards containing the driving circuits for activating the to-be-tested components. Connecting the two types of cards are sets of corresponding pairs of connectors--one located at the junction between the high temperature section and the connecting unit section, and the other located at the junction between the low temperature section and the connecting unit section. To connect the pairs of connectors, sets of large number of conductor pins are used.
As was with the case of the '620 device, inasmuch as one of the connectors in the '616 device is continuously exposed to the heat from the high temperature section, the integrity of the measurement is affected by the exposed connector. Also, since only conductor pins are used to connect the corresponding pairs of connectors, the reliability of the '616 equipment is affected when one or more of these connecting pins are bent, as the different PC boards are pushed into the connectors.